Solar Power

Two sustainable art shows

This post comes to you from Cultura21

August 3nd – October 30th, Arte SusteMobile, Hamburg / RE-ART t(W)oo, Otterndorf (Germany)

Arte SusteMobile  is an art and design exhibition which focuses on sustainable traffic and mobility. Some of the themes exhibited are : art in public transport, innovative means of public transport, human powered vehicles, flying and driving with hydrogen and solar power, solar airships, bionic structured airplanes, one world transport, energy efficient and noise reductive technologies and much more… In total over 70 artists, designers and university teams from 20 nations are involved.

RE-ART t(W)oo – shows art and design in the context of recycling, waste and social development. 55 artists from 15 nations exhibiting their works made from all kind of waste and scrap plus other positions pointing onto social and ecological problems and challenges.

Both exhibitions are curated by Samuel J. Fleiner.

For more information about the project : click here and here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Top Solar Power US States (Per Capita)

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Of course lists, top-tens and the like are a very particular way of seeing the world, but this analysis, published on the blog CleanTechnica, of the USA by State and population is very interesting.  It shows how much solar PV is installed per capita (i.e. per head of population).  They have also published stats for wind power.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Sustainia100 – 100 sustainable solutions

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Sustainia is a consortium of partners representing civil society, businesses and experts. The concept of “Sustainia” is developed by the Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning in a collaborative effort with global companies and foundations.

It is a concept for communicating a sustainable future based on concrete and tangible know-how and technologies – a global collaborative platform for building a model and vision for a sustainable future. The model of Sustainia represents best practice, knowledge and technologies that already exist. It is inspired and designed by world leading companies, institutions and experts.

Sustainia100 was launched at  Rio+20, in the first edition, they guide you through solutions from 56 countries on six continents. From solar power in Sudan, to sustainable fashion in Switzerland; from water-cooling in Canada to solar-cooling in Singapore; from buses in Brazil, to smart buildings in Sydney.

The solutions they present have been organized  into sections for the citizen; the CEO; the advocate; the engineer; the venture capitalist; and the politician. They also clearly say which sector (buildings, food, fashion, etc.) each solution impacts, and how each solution benefits economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

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Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Arcole Sustainable Solutions for a Fair Future series continues Thursday

A brief reminder about the next event in the Sustainable Solutions for a Fair Future series.

Join us this Thursday from 6pm, as Charlotte Webster from Solar Century will be discussing the global potential of solar power, including macro and micro uses; barriers to uptake and new policies, and the UK story of solar power. We’ll discuss what’s happening on the ground and what individuals can do.

Founded in 1998, Solar Century is the UK’s largest independent solar energy company and has delivered a number of high profile projects including the Eden Project, the CIS Tower and the Big Brother House. Solar Century is working on the largest solar housing project with 650 homes in South Yorkshire powered by solar electricity by 2012.

Cycle Sunday organised in partnership with Artsadmin, will take place on 12 June. It will be a jam-packed day with events, discussions, workshops and artistic interventions all about bikes and cycling. Click HERE for more information

Earth Hour and the curious effect of candlelight

This Saturday from 8.30pm to 9.30pm is Earth Hour.  All over the world people will switch off their lights for sixty minutes. Public institutions worldwide will go dark. Myself, I’m going round to my friend Paul’s house where we will eat dinner in candlelight. Paul has to take part, of course; he works for the WWF who are behind the whole concept that draws 2,700 towns and cities, 20,000 businesses and millions of people in 84 countries around the world together for an hour.  It’s part symbolic gesture, and partly a way of engaging us all in the idea of using less. Of course the idea of being thrilled at the prospect of using less for an hour could have very middle-class, Presbyterian tang to it. Using less is possibly not quite as exotic to the billions worldwide for whom electricity is a historically recent miracle.

But it’s worth doing for another reason too; there is something fabulous about darkness, something that is easy to lose touch with if you’ve grown up with the idea of electricity being cheap and plentiful. Using less doesn’t have to be a hair-shirt thing.

I was reminded of this last year when I went off-grid for a month with my kids in Devon, using only solar power, paraffin lamps and candles for light. I wrote a piece about it for The Observer:

While I wait for the water to boil I fill the lamps with paraffin; the shack is lit by candles and oil lamps. Snow starts to pelt down outside. I wonder if I’m underprepared.

After eating, we get out a board game; the kids crowd round the table. Despite the icy cold outside, the shack is suddenly lusciously warm.

A red glow seeps from the stove. Our faces are pink in the paraffin light.

Electricitylessness is an astonishing novelty in the modern age. My daughter’s friend says: ‘I keep reaching round the doors expecting to find a light switch.’ Instead, they carry torches or candles to light their way. ‘It’s fun lighting candles,’ says Tomas with a dangerous glint in his eye. I remind him that this building is made of wood.

Electricity fills every corner of a house with light. In contrast, the paraffin lamps on the table light only our faces; it has the miraculous effect of drawing people together into a close, sociable circle. It’s like being in a 17th-century Dutch painting. I am suddenly reminded of the joy of being a boy during the power blackouts of the Seventies.

I step outside. In an exceptionally starry frost, I look in through the windows at the children playing contentedly at the table and feel curiously proud of having provided for them, in a hunter-gatherer-type way. It’s a sentiment that doesn’t strike me much at home.

Image: The Matchmaker by Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656)

EDIT:

As viral campaigns go, this one is kind of genius, and shares Caravaggio-type lightint with the painting above. Warning. Won’t watch it if you’re squeamish. Contains grauitous violence.

 

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology